Briar Village

Finally! Real Training!

Next morning, at the fountain…

Everyone actually shows up at the fountain today, and Sensei shows up a minute or two later as usual. After taking her headphones off, she tells everyone to regroup at the memorial in the forest again for some actual training. The genin are slightly confused by her choice of words, as everyone goes there in one group.

Once there, Sensei creates a clone (with darker hair) that smiles happily and waves to everyone. Sensei explains that she hasn’t gotten a chance to see everyone work together in a combat situation, so just to gauge their ability she wants to see how long it takes them to tag her clone. She also asks them not to do anything that might damage the memorial, and not to go far out of the clearing.

Sensei then jumps up to the top of one of the trees at the edge of the clearing and lets the genin go at it.

Li starts quickly by throwing a kunai at the clone, but she just moves her head slightly to avoid it. Kam-kun runs up and punches the clone, but she sidesteps him. Tajo also tries (and fails) to attack her in melee.

Tajo then waits until Li attacks next (throwing an exploding tag at the clone’s feet) and uses that as cover to hide in an open area with the Cloak of Invisibility. Kam and Sensei’s clone both jump away from the explosion in time, however; the clone lands behind Li, taps him on the shoulder, and waves at him while still smiling happily. Kam then makes 6 clones surrounding Sensei’s clone (using Li as a 7th person in the ring).

Kam then calls out that they should all try to attack at the same time, so that the clone will have less room to maneuver. Tajo’s hawk, Youshun, flies over to try to catch the clone if she jumps out again. Kam and his clone army all rush in as well; Li jumps back a step and throws a kunai; after the scuffle clears, the clone is standing happily just outside the pile of Kams, several of which are calling out that they were able to grab the clone.

Sensei calls down that she can’t tell what any of them may have touched, but since the clone hasn’t “poof”ed yet, their objective is not yet completed.

Li waits to see what strategy his teammates want to try this time; Kam’s clones all decide to try mob-rushing the target again, and this time one of them gets a lucky hit in and manages to poof her.

Sensei then jumps down and congratulates everyone on their success. She goes on to explain that she and her clone were also trying to demonstrate the utility of chakra-enhanced jumping, which is one of the most basic forms of chakra-enhanced movement. She gives a quick explanation and demonstration of how a burst of chakra from one’s feet can cause a great increase in jumping ability. Kam sits down and closes his eyes to watch her chakra system and get a better idea how to do the technique, so Sensei demonstrates it a couple times, slowly. She also demonstrates the relative painlessness of a “mis-fire” from using too much chakra, after her students show some misgivings about this process.

On the first trial, all three genin manage to mold their chakra to jump up correctly, but not being used to jumping that high, they all fall when they land.

After several further attempts, Li is able to consistently jump and land correctly. Kam is also able to quickly learn how to jump but has a very difficult time with landing from that height. Tajo has very poor success at both jumping and landing; during the next several minutes he “mis-fires” the jump several times, and even faceplants on two landings.

Li goes off to grab drinks at the store (which Sensei gives him some cash for), and when he gets back Sensei calls a 10-minute break. After that, Tajo is also able to figure out the jumping part, but it still takes he and Kam several more minutes to reliably stick the landing.

After Sensei is convinced her team can properly perform this technique, she takes everyone back to the fountain for homework assignments and general discussion.

Sensei asks what sorts of training her students would like, now that everyone seems to be able to get started as a team. Tajo says he wants combat training; Li says he wants better/stronger poisons; Kam says he wants tactical/job training.

Sensei then assigns homework—Tajo has to write on the uses of jumping in combat; Li is given a “college ruled” half-sheet of paper and told to fill it neatly with an essay on how to use poison around one’s teammates; Kam has to write on his ideas for tactics involving clones.

Once Sensei leaves, Li notices his parents watching him from across the village circle. His mom rushes over and hugs him and gushes over him for a minute; Li just stands there and takes it. Li’s dad walks over much more leisurely and asks to be introduced to Li’s team.

After Li makes polite introductions, he asks his parents what they’re doing there. His father tells him apologizes for missing Li’s graduation ceremony, and says that he wanted to meet his son’s new teammates. Takashi-san then invites the team out to barbeque as a graduation present to his son.

The meal is mostly small talk, with Li’s mom being somewhat embarrassing for Li. Tajo is somewhat loud and uncouth; Kam is quiet and polite (and seems to generally try to avoid eye contact). Li’s dad says that he’s in town for a few days as a business trip as well as seeing his son, and Li promises to visit his mother at their hotel before she leaves again.

[ Homework “scores”: Tajo got a 4 on is essay; Li wrote his in legalese but succeeded by 4; Kam failed by 1 ]

[ Free Jumping Level 1 to all; Tajomaru also gets a free rank in Writing (Academic), or just the Academic specialization if he has that skill already ]